Technology Districts

 DHITECH Scarl - Distretto TEcnologico High Tech

 

Via S. Trinchese, 61
73100 Lecce
(Apulia)

Telephone:
+39 0832 315944
Fax:
+39 0832 310252
URL:
www.dhitech.it

President:
Prof. Aldo Romano
Director:
Prof. Fabrizio Quarta
Email:
amministrazione@dhitech.it

Main points

The company in the form of a consortium pursues no proft intentions but rather public interest aims. Technological and scientific competences are intended to make investments in the high tech industry segment attractive. DHITECH concentrated on the following points:

- Consolidation of the research and technology transfer infrastructures for materials, technologies and miniature devices for innovative applications in the new generation photonics, electronics, biotechnology and diagnostics segments. This highly innovative infrastructure is intended to be ensured by the foundation (or consolidation) of research and development laboratories involving leading international companies in the (to a very large extent already present) respective sectors;

- Consolidation of an infrastructure platform for e-business and intelligent management;

- Development of a platform for high-performance calculations on a grid basis;

- Development of a platform for degree courses and post-graduate studies for students in Italy and the Euro-Mediterranean Area in the high tech field with which a centre for technologiaionl education in the Mediterranean Area is to be created.

The Apulia technology district intends to develop and integrate an interdisciplinary cluster for nano, bio and IT in accordance with the aims of the VI. and VII. Framework Programmes and the national research plan. The district is based on the special existing infrastructure network in the Lecce area, which consists of the laboratories with public and private sponsors such as universities, research facilities and national and international high tech companies.
The strategic areas of the district are based on three world-class infrastructures, which already have a dense network of international, transcontinental European cooperations and a significant input from the industry located in the Lecce area:

- Hardware platform (formed by the NNL Laboratory of INFM and the nano sciences of the Scuola Superiore ISUFI);

- e-business management and intelligent government platform (formed from the E-BMS segment of the Scuola Superiore ISUFI);

- Platform for high-performance calculations and grid computing (formed by HPC – the High Performance Computation and Grid Computing Laboratory of the Scuola Superiore ISUFI );

The strengths of the members were united in the framework programme for scientific research signed on 28.04.2005 by MUR, MEF and the Apulia Region. This agreement established typology, general aim, pre-requisites and reasons for the Apulian high tech district (DHITECH) and its strategic coherence with the innovation strategy of the region, the guidelines of the national research plan and the priorities of the VI. and VII. EU framework programmes. This government document describes DHITECH as Apulia's most sophisticated in the areas of publicly and privately sponsored research, high performance and technology transfer. This is active in the two important subject areas 'advanced materials and nanotechnologies', and 'ICT and organisational changes', which affect the 'enabling technologies', which impact on different production stages.

Strengths of the District:
For public sponsors:
- Technical-scientific competence centres of the University of Salento

- Laboratories of the sector e-business management of the Scuola Superiore ISUFI – University of Salento, which are specialised in engineering sciences in the fields of digital and organisational innovation;

- The national laboratory for nanotechnology of INFM/CNR;
For private sponsors;

- Technological and industries structures in the aerospace (Avio SpA, Alenia Aeronautica), ICT (Engineering Informatica SpA), electronics and microelectronics (ST Microelectronics, Selex Integrierte Systeme) and automotive (FIAMM SpA) sectors;

- The Confindustria Lecce (association of Italian industry in Lecce) offers cooperation possibilities with the local SMEs;

- Use of the whole potential of the region by means of the reasons of the provincial administration of Lecce with the local government authorities.

The above-named strengths are both supplemented by the international relations of the named facilities and also by the existing platform for methodology, technology and management fort he training of young people from the Mediterranean Area at the Scuola Superiore ISUFI.

Brief description

Based on the IV. European Framework Programme, the Technology District was set up for the support of science on 28.4.2005 by the Ministry of Economics and Finance, the Ministry of Education, the Universities and Research and the Region of Apulia.
The DHITECH Scarl consortium located in Lecce was founded on 20.12.05 with the aim of developing an optimum structure for research, training and technological innovations. This structure was intended to generate, with the help of scientific, technological and entrepreneurial competence, investment in the high-tech industries and in the modernisation of traditional production systems.

Companies:
6
R&D facilities:
2

Sectors

    • ICT and Industry
      • Microelectronics
      • Industrial automation
      • Aerospace
    • Life Sciences und Materials
      • Nanotechnology

Services

    • Research and Development
      • Administration of external research projects
      • Technology transfer
      • Commercialization of technologies
    • Human Resources
      • Staff training
      • Staff recruiting
      • Partnerships with universities and other research institutes
      • Management consultancy
    • Business
      • Network formations

Data and Facts

Key data

  • Founded in: 2005
  • Companies: 6
  • Research Centers: 2
  • Industry Association: 1

Institutions

Objectives

  • Creation of new jobs
  • Enhancement of job quality
  • Attracting investors
  • Foundation of new companies
  • Intensification of the relations between universities and companies
  • Extension of new research activities
  • Economic exploitation of scientific results
  • Technological consulting for companies and institutions
  • Location marketing
  • Enhancement of the competitiveness of companies
  • Recruiting and Training of Young Researchers
  • Support of SMEs
  • Achieving Excellent International Standards
  • Creation and strengthening of development networks based on information exchange
  • Development of partnerships with the States bordering on the Southern Mediterranean

Network

  • A.DI.TE. (Italian Association of Tecnology Districts)

Members

The district relies on the cooperation between the public and private shareholders, in order to be able to make better use of regional, national and EU programmes in the research and innovation fields. By concentrating on the synergies of its members, it would like thus on the one hand to position itself in the fields of scientific and technological challenges of Italy and the EU; on the other hand, it aims at reducing in time terms the application of the research results and the technological advantages in the socio-economic system of Apulia. The members of DHITECH district directly involved in the project proposals for research and technological development have the following aims:

· Stable cooperation with European and international research facilities as part of joint research programmes and the exchange of researchers and lecturers;

· Development of stable relations to the Mediterranean countries, in particular, to the countries in North Africa, by means or research and training programmes in cooperation with companies, universities and research centres;

· Support with corporate set-ups and with the foundation and development of research spin-offs in the area of systems and technologies for the promotion of new developments. Support and extension of public-private partnerships between Italian and international industrial companies with universities and research centres.

· Systematic integration of the activities in the fields of research, training and innovation as the pre-requisites for the enhancement of competitiveness;

· Stimulation of continuous cooperation between customers and suppliers of application-oriented solutions with researchers, developers and planners within the planning processes

· Performance of test processes of the application solutions and their integration in research, training and innovation;

Location

Location and Environment

Name
Inhabitants
Distance

Location

Lecce

0 km

PST

Tecnopolis

150 km

University

Università del Salento
Scuola Superiore ISUFI

5 km

Infrastructure and links

Name
Distance

Airport

Airport Brindisi
Papola - Casale

45 km

Railway Station

Lecce Main Station

1 km

Harbor

Brindisi

35 km

Technology transfer

Activities

  • Industrial research activities for the realisation of a Problem Solving Environment based on a grid infrastructure, which has general-purpose services, to be used for domain-independent processes.
  • Industrial research for the development of an ICT based joint working environment, with which the development of new products in aerospace can be promoted.
  • Industrial research for the production of innovative light sources in the automotive and artificial lighting fields.
  • Industrial research in the field of advanced micro and nano production proceses, with which equipment in the application fields of electronics, photonics, micromechanics and biosensorics are generated.
  • Research in the development of secure calculation protocols for Supply Chain Management, with which risks in data exchange are avoided.

Research and Development

Project 1

Description

“Integrated, Intelligent, Collaborative, Multidisciplinary Design in the Aeronautical Value Network: Toward a Federated Laboratory on i –Design”.

Aim

Support for the competitiveness of the aerospace industry in the new market scenarios. Focal points are transformation models of the most important processes linked to the development of new products, which envisage tests of integrated design solutions. The aim of the project is to attract international players for the development of design technology platforms.

Project 2

Description

Development of innovative, digital and organisational technologies and processes, with which the growth of the aerospace industry in Apulia is supported.

Aim

The aim of this project is the implementation of the results from basic and industrial research in the aerospace branch. Start-ups are supported, which offer innovative services with a high added value and which are intergrated into the Supply Chain in the area of ICT applications.

Project 3

Description

Innovative technologies for the enhancement of composite materials with duroplastic polymermatrix

Aim

The project envisages the developmewnt of new nanoparticles, with which enhanced composite materials made from resin and fibre-glass for the aerospace industry should be manufactured. The aim is to optimise thermal conductivity, mechanical characteristics (weight and elasticity), water resistance and optical characteristics such as radar and infrared transparency.

Project 4

Description

Epitactic Substrates for GaN-HEMT Technologies [Gallium Nitride (GaN) High Electron-Mobility Transistor (HEMT)]

Aim

The most important aim is the build-up of national, application-oriented competence in this field. The growth and the characterisation of AlGan/GaNis heterostrcutucres on semi-insualting SIC structures are to be supported, the characteristics of which permit the produciton of rapid electronic components and of correspondingly intregrated circuits (MMIC) using GaN technology.

Project 5

Description

Development of optical devices from photochromatic nano-synthetic material.

Aim

The aim is the development of fully synthetic OLED equipment with improved mean lifetime, performance and mechanical adaptation, which can repace the current automotive lighting systems (rear lights, brake lights and interior lighting etc.). The technological aim is a red OLED matrix with differing sizes and shapes depending on the pixel count, a light intensity of over 10000 cd/m² and an average life of over 10 000 hours.

Project 6

Description

Models and processes of digital and organisational innovation applied to the development of SME networks

Aim

The research project aims at the application of the scieintifc, technological and industrial expertise in the e-business management sector and intelligent management of Dhitech including 'socal computing' inspired by the new Web-2 technologies. A test project is to be developed, which is to promote the foundation of start-ups, which offer innovative, added-value-oriented services.

Project 7

Description

Networked European Software and Service Initiative (NESSI) – ITALY.

Aim

The technology district DHITECH wishes to advertise as a partner the Nessi Europa platform in conjunciton with its Italian members for this platform in Italy. The aim of the programme is, analogous to similalr progammes in other EU countries, the networking of activities in basic research and the applied research fields, with which the implementation possibilities for European research results in important segments such as e-government, e-health und e-learning are optimised.

Project 8

Description

Nanotechnologies for diagnostics in the areas Bio, biomedicine and foods

Aim

The possiblities are investigated for the development of synthetic sensors and devices for chemical and bilogicial diagnostics. The NNL laboratory researches a series of new technologies including the immobilisation of biomolecules on a chip, the protein and enzyme lithography and the piezoelectric microactors for the movement of small amounts of liquid. The aim is the development of equipment suitable for diagnostics and EDP. In the first instance this is basic research, which constitutes a key technology for future developments in the fields of electronics and sensorics.

Project 9

Description

Laboratory for Tssue Engineering in the field of regenerative medicine.

Aim

Strengthening of the national tissue engineering network by the foundation of a laboratory for tissue engineering of complex biohybride tissues such as bones, cartilage and nerves, which are combimed with new bioactive materials such as cells and in vivo- clincial applications.

Project 10

Description

Excellence Incubator for the formation of intellectual capital in the Euro-Mediterranean Area.

Aim

The DHITECH technology district, the aim of which is the strengthening of Apulia in European cooperation processesn in the Euro-Mediterranean Area, intends to make its research projects usable as a source for the formation of intellectual capital by founding an excellence incubator. The incubator generates:

· Human capital: promotion of young talents in the Euro-Mediterranean Area by particpation in research projects of the district (Action Learning);

· Social capital: promotion of the cooperation between researchers, students, pupils, companies, institutions and research authorities in the Euro-Mediterranean Area.

· Structural capital in the form of patents, start-ups, spin-offs and innovative model projects.

The excellence incubator for intellectual capital in the Euro-Mediterranean Area should upvalue the contributions of the district members. The Scuola Mediterranea di Studi Avanzati in Intelligent Management founded in Morocco, Jordan and Tunisia by the Scuola Superiore ISUFI, University of Salento (advanced school for intelligent management in the Mediterranean Area) constitutes jointly with the tasks and interests of the participating members the core of the project.

Incubator and Incentives

Regional

  • Cipe Decision 17/2003

National

  • Framework Programme Agreement between the Apulia Region and MUR dated 28.04.2005

EU-Level

  • 7. Framework Programme